{"id":37005,"date":"2018-01-22T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T14:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=37005"},"modified":"2018-01-24T14:53:01","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T22:53:01","slug":"does-your-child-have-nightmares-heres-how-you-can-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/does-your-child-have-nightmares-heres-how-you-can-help-0122184","title":{"rendered":"Does Your Child Have Nightmares? Here’s How You Can Help"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AThe dreaded nightmare<\/a>.\u00a0Your child wakes up in a sweat for the third night in a row, screaming, convinced there are monsters lurking, wanting to cause harm. You are left feeling helpless and concerned. The most you can do is to soothe your child and say it was just a dream.<\/p>\n

You might wonder to yourself why the nightmares keep occurring, and more importantly, what you might be able to do about it. If your child experiences nightmares regularly, this article may be helpful.<\/p>\n

What Causes Nightmares?<\/h2>\n

Dreams, good or bad, are not only a vital part of a child\u2019s emotional and cognitive development, but they can also can serve as a map to your child\u2019s inner world.<\/p>\n

According to Bay Area child psychologist Alan Siegel, nightmares can be a clear beacon for a parent, guardian, teacher, or counselor, in terms of the psyche, especially when children are faced with stressful<\/a> changes in their routine or are going through a particularly challenging time. Through childhood development research and personal case studies, Siegel found that anything from the first day of school to changing residence can lead to nightmares. More severe cases may stem from events such as divorce<\/a>, accidents, or a death<\/a> in the family.

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Humans go through specific stages of development<\/a>, with the most dramatic occurring during childhood and adolescence<\/a>. During these stages, there is much emotional, biological and mental intensity, and a great need for balance or comfort. For example, children going to school for the first time will most likely experience stress as their environment is quickly and dramatically changed. Dreams, often in the form of nightmares, may then be more likely to occur during these transitions as the child copes with the new challenges that inevitably must arise in the stages of life.<\/p>\n

Dreaming is also a part of our need for homeostasis or balance in our lives, especially during periods of transition<\/a> and stress. In the book\u00a0Encountering the Monster: Pathways in Children\u2019s Dreams<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>psychologist Denyse Beaudet collected over 100 dreams in an 11-week period from 15 preschoolers between the ages of 5 and 6.

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At first the task seemed daunting in that the dreams of children are multifaceted and greatly diverse in content. Further, the dreams of children may subject to modification: for most children, the line between reality and fantasy is very fine, and their gift of imagination<\/a> can easily alter dream recall.<\/p>\n

However, by looking at a series of dreams instead of a single dream,<\/em> Beaudet was able to mark the evolution in a child\u2019s life in terms of how that child found balance to stressful situations. For example, monster themes, which were quite frequent, could be quite telling in terms of how a child deals with adversaries in dreams and in life. Is the child combative or complacent? Does the child have help or do they feel helpless and alone?<\/p>\n

Dreaming is also a part of our need for homeostasis or balance in our lives, especially during periods of transition and stress.<\/span><\/p>\n

In one particular case, a girl recorded a series of 11 such monster dreams where the focal point included the vehicle in which she moved through the dream. In the first dream, she is being pushed inside a baby carriage while encountering the monster. In later dreams, she rides in a car and then eventually rides a bicycle of her own volition. Although she did not yet know how to ride a bicycle in waking life, it became clear to Beaudet, through working with her dreams, that the child was gaining more control and emotional balance in her life. \u201cFrom one dream to the next, the various vehicles recur\u2026express(ing) in many ways the experience of movement and displacement in (her) psychic life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beaudet\u2019s research,\u00a0mindful of dreams as psychic odysseys, proved to be quite powerful in finding correlations between dreams and childhood development by letting the dreams speak for themselves. In order to do this as Beaudet suggests, we must hold the dreams with curiosity and creativity and without judgment or fear<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dealing with Recurring Nightmares<\/h2>\n

But what happens when nightmares occur and cannot be traced clearly to a particular event, or the parent has no idea of the significance of the event causing the nightmare?<\/p>\n

Here are some tips that may be helpful for guiding children and their dreams:<\/p>\n